Programming The Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos - Softcover

Lloyd, Seth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099455374 ISBN 13: 9780099455370

Publisher: Vintage, 2007

Synopsis

IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE BIT...

The universe is made of bits of information and it has been known for more than a century that every piece of the the universe - every electron, atom and molecule - registers these bits and that information. It is only in the last years, however, with the discovery and development of quantum computers, that scientists have gained a fundamental understanding of just how that information is registered and processed.

Building on recent breakthroughs in quantum computation, Seth Lloyd shows how the universe itself is a giant computer. Every atom and elementary particle stores these bits, and every collision between those atoms and particles flips the bits into a new arrangement and effortlessly spins out beautiful and complex systems, including galaxies, planets and life itself.

But every computer needs a program, the set of instructions that tell it what patterns to create. Where did the bits come from that tell the universe to create its magnificent complexity? Who - or what - is programming the universe?

About this title

About the Author

Seth Lloyd is Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and a principal investigator at the Research Laboratory of Electronics. He is also adjunct assistant professor at the Santa Fe Institute. His seminal work in the fields of quantum computation and quantum communications has gained him a reputation as an innovator and leader in the field of quantum computing. He has written numerous articles for Nature, New Scientist, Science and Scientific American. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Edition details

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0099455374
• ISBN 13: 9780099455370
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256